Just watched it in Australia, and damn...this movie was something special. It's my personal favourite of the MCU films, and sits comfortably above IM1, TWS, GOTG and A1. I have some minor nitpicks (the score was a bit underwhelming, and some of the CGI was a bit too obvious in a couple of shots/scenes), but everything else was top notch.
Some random thoughts:
- The airport scene alone had me grinning throughout its entirety, and surpasses the SM2 train fight, X2 White House attack, and TWS highway battle as the best comic book action sequence. The other action scenes are all great as well (Rumlow in Lagos, Rogers & Bucky vs German police & Black Panther, Bucky vs Carter, Romanoff & Stark).
- The characters are all wonderfully portrayed, and every hero gets their moment throughout the course of the film. Ant-Man going inside Iron Man's armor, Wanda incapacitating Vision, Spiderman taking on Bucky and Wilson, and there's a lot more but I can't remember all of them.
- Unlike a lot of prior MCU films where the third act is just a bombastic, CGI-fest, the third act in CW is gut-wrenching and personal. When Stark finds out the truth about his parents, it's an 'oh ****' moment because up to that point, it looked like Stark, Bucky and Rogers were all on the same side again. It's my favourite third act out of all the MCU films because there's an emotional weight to the fighting. We've seen Rogers in previous films kick ass, but this is the first time we've seen him really tear into an opponent. And it's absolutely brutal how Rogers rips into Iron Man towards the end of the fight.
- The humor is great, and while there's the occasional quip, it's a lot less forced compared to A1 and AoU.
- The first half may be a bit slow for some, but I liked how it setup the characters and their motivations. And there is action sprinkled in the first half, so it's not like it's a complete bore.
It's definitely worth watching a second, or even third time because there's so much to take in.
